Protect river from oil pipeline leaks

Cambridge Times

The Grand River, a heritage river in the history books, falls under the new Navigation Protection Act, only from Brantford down to Lake Erie. Environmental protection for the river from the danger of oil pipeline leakage has been eliminated.

Upstream from Brantford, where permission has been granted to Enbridge to move western oil of uncertain viscosity from Sarnia, toward the east, under the Grand (this pipeline is expected to be extended to Montreal and beyond, eventually), the river will no longer be protected under the old Navigable Waters Protection Act.

Could someone assure folks along the shorelines of lakes Erie and Ontario that the pipe will be upgraded, where it crosses a hundred water courses, to the standard that Enbridge vows would be the minimum for any pipeline it proposes building to the B.C. coast?

Under the previous Canadian Environmental Assessment Act – passed in 1992 and in force until its repeal last summer – the Navigable Waters Protection Act was named in regulations as a law that triggered assessments. It was an environmental protection act, not just about navigation.